20 May 2013
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and especially the rail staff of North Wales.
Forthcoming events
This list may be out of date if you are reading an archived page. For
the current list visit our Calendar.
May 2013
Saturday 25 May Excursion Statesman Rail 'Welsh Mountain
Statesman'
Saturday 25 May 2013 Hull, Brough , Selby, Garforth, Leeds,
Dewsbury, Mirfield, Huddersfield, Stalybridge, Stockport
Wilmslow, Crewe (c. 09:00) to Aberystwyth for the Vale of Rheidol
Railway. (Fully booked.)
Tuesday 28 May Talyllyn
Railway Children's 'Duncan' Day.
Wednesday 29 May Compass Tours 'Ynys
Mon
Express' Southport - Holyhead. (Was to be steam, but has been changed
to diesel due to 'loco availability issue.')
June 2013
1-2 June Llangollen
Railway Day Out with Thomas weekend
Thursday 6 June Steam to Chester
Railway Touring Company London Euston
-
Chester . 70013: Euston-Northampton-Chester and return
Saturday 8 June Llangollen
Railway Real Ale train evening
Saturday 8 June Wirral 0
Gauge Group Open Day, Unit 7, The Odyssey Centre,
Corporation Road,
Birkenhead 41 1HB British model trains running 13:00 to 17:00.
Admission £2 - ample free parking. Nearest Station Birkenhead
Park. Contact 0151 653 0637 or j.elliott37[at]sky.com for more
information.
22-23 June Llangollen
Railway Heritage Railcar Gala
July 2013
Saturday 6 July. The Welsh
N-Gauge Model Railway Show, organised by the N-Gauge Society
North Wales Area Group.An exclusively N-Gauge Exhibition with layouts
from the Group and visiting layouts in British and American outline. St
Mary's Church hall, Rosehill Steet, Conwy LL32 8LD,10.00am to 4.00pm,
adults £3.00 Children £1.50 Refreshments available.
Hall fully disabled accessible - car parking, bus stops and rail
station adjacent.Further information: 01492 572633.
Saturday 6 July Excursion Statesman Rail
'Welsh Mountain Statesman' Saturday 25 May 2013 Sheffield, and stations
to Wolverhampton to Aberystwyth for the Vale of
Rheidol Railway. (Fully booked.)
Saturday / Sunday 6-7 July Llangollen
Railway Classic Transport Weekend
Saturday / Sunday 6 July Talyllyn
Railway Garden Railway weekend.
Saturday 13 July Llangollen
Railway Murder Mystery evening
Saturday 20 July Excursion UK Railtours Cardigan Bay Panorama
London to
Aberystwyth. Note: entirely First Class Dining, fare £169.
27-28 July Llangollen
Railway July 1960s weekend
Sunday 28 July Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company 'North Wales
Coast
Express' Liverpool - Holyhead - Liverpool. Loco 45305, 46233, 60009 or
70013.
Tuesday 30 July Steam on the Coast Railway Touring Company 'The Welsh
Mountaineer'
Preston-Frodsham-Llandudno Jc -Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Loco
45305 or 61994.
August 2013
3-4 August Llangollen
Railway Day Out With Thomas
Sunday 4 August Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company 'North Wales
Coast Express' Crewe - Holyhead, steam-hauled Manchester Piccadilly -
Altrincham - Chester - Holyhead and return by 45305/70013
8-11 August Llangollen
Railway Day Out With Thomas
Friday/Saturday 9 - 10 August Talyllyn Railway
beer festival
Saturday 17 August Vintage Trains 'The
Welsh
Dragon' Tyseley - Llandudno Junction and return. Loco 5043
Sunday 18 August Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company 'North Wales
Coast Express' Liverpool - Holyhead - Liverpool. Loco 45305, 46233,
60009 or 70013.
Tuesday 20 August Steam on the Coast Railway Touring Company 'The Welsh
Mountaineer'
Preston-Frodsham-Llandudno Jc -Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Loco
45305 or 61994.
Thursday 22 August Talyllyn Railway
Children's 'Duncan' Day
Saturday 24 August Wirral 0
Gauge Group Open Day, Unit 7, The Odyssey Centre,
Corporation Road,
Birkenhead CH41 1HB American model trains running 13:00 to
17:00. Admission £2 - ample free parking. Nearest Station
Birkenhead Park.
Contact 0151 653 0637or j.elliott37[at]sky.com for more
information.
30-31 August and 1 September Llangollen Railway
Steam gala
September
2013
Sunday 1 September Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company
'North Wales Coast Express' Crewe - Holyhead, steam-hauled Manchester
Piccadilly - Altrincham - Chester - Holyhead and return by 45305/70013.
Tuesday 3 September Steam on the
Coast Railway Touring Company 'The
Welsh Mountaineer'
Preston-Frodsham-Llandudno Jc -Blaenau Ffestiniog and return. Loco
45305 or 61994.
Sunday 8 September Steam on the Coast
Railway Touring Company
'North Wales Coast Express' Crewe - Holyhead, steam-hauled Manchester
Piccadilly - Altrincham - Chester - Holyhead and return by 45305/70013.
14 September Llangollen
Railway Murder Mystery evening
21 September Llangollen
Railway Diesel Day
|
Virgin Super Voyager 221 108 Sir Ernest Shackleton
departs from Rhyl with the 13.55 service from
Holyhead to London Euston on 18 May. Picture by Roly High.
Magazine watch
The June issue of Rail Express
magazine, now on sale, includes the first of a series of articles
'Diesel Traction on North Wales Branch Lines' by Steve Morris, a
regular supporter of our website. Part 1 covers the Menai Bridge to
Caernarfon branch line, including the story of the trains which ran for
the Investiture of the Prince of Wales on 1 July 1969, and the freight
trains which ran to Caernarfon after the Britannia Bridge fire in 1970,
before the line was finally abandoned in 1972.
An interesting period of history, although many would say the line
should never have closed. It was one of a group of branch lines (others
being Hayfield, Keswick and Bridport) which lingered on past the demise
of the Government which commissioned the infamous Beeching Report.
Sadly their successors failed to save railways which would have been
very useful in today's situation.
Steve is well-qualified to create his books and articles on our area,
as he grew up near the North Wales Coast line, and worked for some time
as an engineer at Cardiff Canton depot.
Northern Belle on the Coast
47 802 Pride of Cumbria leading train 1Z50
Nottingham - Bangor 'Northern Belle' luxury excursion out of Abergele
on 18 May. Picture by Jack Bowley.
Passing Penmaenmawr (Darren Durrant).
47 802 emerges from the Egyptian-style portal of Bangor Tunnel into
Platform 2 at Bangor station (Rowan
Crawshaw).
The train ran to Holyhead for servicing after setting down its
passengers at Bangor. Above, 47 790
trails at the train departs into Belmont Tunnel. The 'Northern Belle'
headboard has already been transferred in preparation for the return
run (Rowan Crawshaw).
This tunnel mouth is not an original Chester and Holyhead Railway work,
as the tunnel was shortened more recently to allow for expansion of the
station area.
For the return train, 1Z51 Bangor - Nottingham, 47 790
which had been hauled at the back on the outward trip, took its turn at
haulage, as seen above passing Iceland at Llandudno Junction (Peter Lloyd).
Alongside the A55 Expressway at Mochdre (Jack Bowley) In the 1980s the
railway was re-located in this area to make room for the road.
The building of the road was also responsible for the reverse curves on
the approach to Colwyn Bay station. seen in this picture by Darren Durrant.
Llangollen Railway news
Great Western Railway 2-8-0 2861,
one
of
the
Barry Ten,
a collection of scrapyard locomotives that were removed from Woodham
Brothers scrapyard in 1990 when Dai Woodham retired, arrived at the Llangollen
Railway workshops on 7 May. Picture above by George Jones.
It is seen here after arrival alongside former Barry resident 5952 Cogan Hall which has itself
surrendered some parts towards the ongoing re-creation of a Grange class 4-6-0. 2861, which is
owned by the Great Western Society (GWS) was due to have the boiler
lifted to allow for the cylinder block to be extracted. The block is
being donated to the 4709 project,
the frames for which are erected at Llangollen as a contract job for
the GWS. Picture taken by Ken Robinson
while on a conducted tour as part of a railway course at Plas
Tan-y-Bwlch)
2861 was built in June 1918, and spent most of its working life hauling
freight trains, at Ebbw Junction Shed at Newport. It was withdrawn from
service in March 1963. Loco 3802, of the same class as 2861, is part of
the Llangollen active fleet and a regular on Llangollen Railway trains.
Passenger action at Llangollen on 14 May, with pannier tank 6430 taking water while running the
'Timetable A' service. Steam trains now will be running
daily throughout the summer. Picture by Ken Robinson.
Heart of Wales Scenic Rambler
The 'Heart of Wales Scenic Rambler' on 18 May organised by Compass
Tours was an excursion from North Wales to Cardiff. It
travelled outward from Holyhead outward via the scenic 'Heart of Wales'
line between Shrewsbury and Swansea - the 'Central Wales' line as it is
known by everyone outside the world of Marketing. The train returned in
the evening via the faster route through Hereford, Crewe and Chester.
The operation required a empty-stock run to Holyhead the previous day
from West Coast Railways base at Carnforth, always a pleasure for
photographers.The train was top and tailed by Class 47s, of which 47 854 Diamond Jubilee was in charge of
westbound haulage, as pictured above by Peter Lloyd at Llandudno Junction.
47 826 on the rear (Peter Lloyd)
Jack Bowley photographed
the empty train passing Conwy Castle (above). The trees have finally
decided that spring is here.
Bangor (Rowan Crawshaw)
The excursion itself, as seen by Jack
Bowley from the site of the former Hotel '70 degrees' above Old
Colwyn. Leading locomotive now is 47
826 with 47 854 on the rear. The story of the curiously-named
hotel can be found in a document
from
the
BBC
archives.
In the passing loop at Llandrindod Wells (John Young). The London and North
Western Railway signal box has been preserved by the local council as a
museum. It was originally located at the level crossing away from the
station, and known as No 2 box. It was dismantled and relocated to its
present position on the station platform, formerly the site of the No 1
box. British Rail handed it over to the Town
Council at a ceremony during the Victorian Week in 1990. Since then
the Council has opened it for limited periods during the Summer months.
A Shrewsbury-bound train, formed of 153 353, rolls in to Llandrindod,
against a backscene of Victorian spa hotels (John Young).
The return empty working to Carnforth passes Llandudno Junction on 19
May (Jack Bowley).
47 854 is on the front; the triangular itinerary resulted in the whole
train being turned round, a good way to confuse website compilers, but
note the position of the pullman-liveried coach in the train.
Borth revisited
As a postscript to the recent item about Borth station, Glyn Jones offers this picture
(above) of 97 304 powering
through, heading towards Dovey Junction on 20 June 2011 with an
inspection train.
There is now no trace of the 'down' platform which appeared in the
1950s picture, except that the original railway fence appears to be
still in place.
Irish Journey - with Stephen Hughes
For the fourth time I set across the Irish Sea to travel on the premier
tour on our neighbouring railway in Ireland. Railway Preservation Society
of Ireland (RPSI) 'Golden Vale Railtour' which
took place from 11 - 13 May. This year, the tour,
departing from Dublin Connolly on Saturday was due to visit Waterford,
then Limerick - Nenagh - Dublin - Belfast - Antrim - Bangor -
Belfast - Whitehead - by Monday evening. Due to 'driver's
hours' GM diesel 072
provided the motive power
to Waterford where ex Dublin & South Eastern Railway K2 No 461 was due to take over, last
year's problems with this loco hopefully having been overcome.
Above, 461 at Carrick-on-Suir, the home of diesel preservationists the Irish Traction
Group, between Waterford and Limerick.
A
faultless performance brought us to Limerick (above) for the Saturday
overnight
stay. The following day 461 set off from Limerick hauling the
Cravens stock up the 'Nenagh Road', a line that is still said to be
under threat. Perhaps because of this, the track did not seem in
especially good condition, and contributed to a late arrival at
Ballybrophy where we joined the main line.
Further delay was caused by the bane of a number of steam specials, low
water pressure at the water stop at Cloughjordan (above), where the
locals once again turned out to witness the spectacle, whereas those
who turned out at the next station, Roscrea, were not so fortunate, as
the train missed its booked stop in an attempt to regain some lost
time. More minutes were lost at Ballybrophy, our special having
lost its booked path, and at one time we were 110 minutes down.
There followed a good run to Dublin Connolly, where I believe a pretty
unique situation took place, as our train drew into platform 5, our
next train to Belfast composed of Mk 2 stock was waiting on platform 3,
with J15 No 186 (above)
backing down onto it as we arrived. A hurried transfer
took place with the result that we were only 60 minutes down on
departure and initially some spirited running gave false hope that no
more time would be lost, but unfortunately the ten-mile climb to the
summit after Dundalk required a stop about three miles from the top to
- presumably - raise steam.
Shap with a 'Duchess' it was not, but the
reliable 186 must have made a fine sight as she stormed up to reach the
summit. Unfortunately, further time was lost and a prolonged stop at
Portadown
allowed two northbound 'Enterprise' trains to pass, the driver of one,
who was a regular steam driver, tapping his watch and smiling (not sure
his passengers were, though!). By the Lisburn water stop I'm sorry to
say that hunger got the better of me and I joined a few others in
taking a service train into Belfast (Great Victoria Street). It was
nearly
23:00 by the time 186 arrived, nearly 3 hours late.
Due to this late arrival, the departure from Belfast the
following morning was re-timed for 60 minutes later than scheduled
(to enable the footplate staff to have proper rest) and the
opportunity to travel on the mothballed Lisburn - Antrim line was lost
as it was decided to try to get back to the timetable - so we travelled
Belfast - Lisburn - Belfast - Bangor - Belfast - Lisburn - Bangor
(above, 186 at Bangor.)
As I
was due to return to Dublin on the 16:05 Enterprise service from
Belfast I considered baling out at Lisburn (above) to await it there
just in
case of further delay, but in the end I decided to go back to Belfast.
A succession of greens all the way to Central Junction in Belfast led
to
some excellent running and an arrival in Belfast Central was a few
minutes early, where GM 201 class No 206
was waiting to propel the
'Enterprise' service to Dublin, where I arrived in good time to catch
the Ulysses sailing to
Holyhead at 20:55. Incidentally, the local Belfast paper was
reporting a 25% drop in journeys on the 'Enterprise', a possible
combination of
completion of the motorway linking the two cities and speed
restrictions that offer a slower journey time than 20 years ago - and
at a time when passenger numbers are up on other Northern Ireland lines.
Once again, a very enjoyable railtour organised by the RPSI ... and I
completed a few more track miles in the republic making up for all the
years I hadn't bothered to go!
Measurement Trains
The 'New Measurement Train',, which was created for Network Rail using
former HST vehicles, made a run along the North Wales Coast on 16 May,
contrary to an early plan which would have seen another train allocated
to the track recording in this line. Above, it is seen passing Rhyl
westbound. Picture by Roly High.
Above, 43 062 John Armitt leads through Llandudno
Junction (Peter Lloyd)...
... and Bangor on the way to Holyhead (Rowan Crawshaw).
Maelltraeth arches (Tim Rogers).
Return through Bangor with 43 013
leading (Rowan Crawshaw).
The 'Banana' at Pen-y-Clip, Llanfairfechan (Peter Basterfield).
Also on 16 May, 31 465 and 37 402 (top and tailed) approach
Gobowen at 12:05 with a Network Rail Measurement train bound for
Chester. Picture by Martin Evans
who had just arrived off the 12:05 departure to Birmingham
International which can be seen departing.
Making a fine sight on the rear, recently-revived former North Wales
passenger loco 37 402, the
sometime Bont y Bermo.
Incidentally, we have heard a rumour that DRS will be soon opening a
train-crew depot with
loco stabling facility at Llandudno. This seems unlikely, and informed
sources assure us that although DRS has plans for traincrew
recruitment,
a depot at Llandudno does not feature.
Cambrian Coast images
Tim Rogers took this
picture of the Cambrian coast line excursion (see last issue) on 11 May
crossing Briwet bridge near Penrhyndeudraeth. Work progresses on the
project to replace it; the road section is currently closed while the
power company work on diverting their cables. The temporary closure has
become somewhat longer than planned, with mid-June now estimated. There
seems to be no intention (at present) to block the railway until the
new bridge alongside is ready.
On a visit to Llanaber station (for the Llwyndu Farmhouse Hotel)
on
4 May, we noted work under way to install Passenger
Information screens: is this the last Arriva Trains Wales station to
receive them? The work involved digging a trench along the path leading
to the platform, making access for passengers somehat awkward for a few
hours. The picture (by Charlie Hulme)
of
158 821 departing from
Machynlleth shows that the 'gallows' for the screen was already in
place. It is to be hoped that the equipment is very weatherproof, as
this station is very exposed: sea water from the breaking waves was
reaching the platform as we waited for the train.
Freight in pictures
More 37s: Tuesday 14 May's flasks from Valley approaching Llanfair PG
with 37 607 and 37 604 (Peter
Basterfield).
66 118 approaching
Gobowen with the evening train from South Wales to Dee Marsh Junction
where the load of steel coils would be transferred to Shotton
steelworks
for coating. Picture by Martin Evans.
A good place to see freight trains, and within the range of a
'Wayfarer' ticket, is Peak Forest near Buxton and its limestone quarry
sidings. Greg Mape ventured
there on 16 May: here is 66 108
with a train of box wagons in the connection to the Doveholes Quarry.
The RMC Roadstone shunter is seldom used now as train locos do their
own shunting.
The view from the road bridge by the closed Peak Forest station looking
towards Buxton (Greg Mape)
A look back through the fuzzy lens of our archive disk to 1974. The
heaps of limestone waste have yet to be landscaped, as a Class 25 drags
a Northwich-bound train hoppers up the gradient, pushed in rear by
another 25, not coupled to the train, which will drop back just as it
passes under the bridge and the train breasts Peak Forest summit (Charlie Hulme). Standing on the
pavement-less bridge was safer in those days...
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